A Mysterious Object Is on a Collision Course With Earth

10/25/2015

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A mysterious chunk of debris that circled Earth far
beyond the Moon is on a collision course with Earth on November 13th,
astronomers have concluded. WT1190F is merely one to two meters in length and possibly
hollow, but beyond that, astronomers have no knowledge WTF the aptly-named
space debris is. It is hoped that this piece of space trash is not going to
cause any destruction and WT1190F may burn up in orbit around 06:19 GMT on
November 13th. Any residual fragments will splash into the Indian Ocean just
south of Sri Lanka, so if anyone out there planning a fishing outing on that
very day, maybe postpone. This occurrence will go unobserved by most of the
world, but the astronomers who track the path of near-Earth objects are all in
a panic state over it. WT1190F’s distinctive re-entry is an exceptional
opportunity for researchers to study how incoming objects react with our
atmosphere.

Image Credit: NASA

It’s also providing astronomers the chance to
test-drive a synchronized network they’ve put in place for times when more hazardous
space objects comes a-knockin’.I, personally, just
hope we get to learn what it actually is. While there are several thousands of
piece of space trash — satellite wreckages, consumed rocket stages, old
paneling — circling close to the Earth, we’ve only traced 20 or so artificial
objects in distant orbits. WT1190F, with an extremely elliptical orbit locating
twice as far out as the Earth-Moon distance, is a quite unusual piece of trash.

As astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell from Harvard
told Nature News, it might be a “lost piece of space history come back to haunt
us,” maybe an old rocket piece from the Apollo era.

Now that’d be a pretty awesome thing for humankind
to rediscover — even though if it’ll be vanished in a flash.